Blondin at Shoreditch

An illustration from 'London: a Pilgrimage' by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, 1872. Jerrold writes that he and Doré, while out walking one night, were 'attracted to a theatre something under the rank of the Garrick, by the announcement that Blondin was to walk upon the high rope with a cloth over his head. The house was thronged; and as we entered, a man with a cloth reaching well over his shoulders, was just venturing upon the rope. The sea of upturned faces was almost the saddest sight I can remember. With the exception of the sailors (who delight in the strongly seasoned drama and rollicking songs of the East End) every human countenance was haggard, scarred with the desperate battle of life, defaced, degraded, or utterly brutalised.'

The tightrope performer was not the famous Blondin, who became well known when he crossed Niagara Falls in 1859. However, a few years after 'London: a Pilgrimage' was published, Blondin's financial circumstances were such that he had to return to performing. His last performance was in 1896 and he died the following February, a few days before what would have been his 73rd birthday.